The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladi­mir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.

He claims to be a follower of Jesus Fucking Christ. Now I'm not one to lecture people on how to practise their religion, but I will mildly suggest that he and Betsy might want to reflect on the question.

I read maybe 2/3rds of Scahill's book on Prince. "Hypocrite" is one thing Prince isn't. He's a principled, elite Christian apocalyptist that killed ragheads with distinction in the SEALs, was born a member of the Council for National Policy and has known, from an early, early age that the world is run by the Illuminati of which he is a member.

The problem isn't that he's a "so-called" christian. It's that he's a capital-C Crusader that has made a career out of killing people in the dark off the record.

I don't imagine JFC himself would recognize much of his teachings in this kind of Christianity. Indeed there are many Christians who wouldn't. (You know, there's that whole love, humility and compassion thing that seems to get overlooked in favour of "fuck thy neighbour".) The terminological point is unimportant but the difference in spirit between one end of Christianity (basically, Jesus F Christ) and the other (Erik F Prince) is huge.

Muhammed would have a hard time with Islam (all sects) these days, too - it's taken on a lot of the Beduin stuff that he deliberately tried to cut out. A friend observed that it seemed like "Christianity" had a lot more to do with Paul than it did to do with Jesus and he's not wrong; Paul never met Jesus and proselytized that which would stick, not necessarily that which belonged to Jesus. Then you get to the Nicene Council and it's safe to say Paul probably wouldn't recognize modern Christianity, either. Hell, Jesus probably wouldn't recognize the Copts.

So I get your point? But the fact of the matter is, Erik Prince grew up espousing the main-line charismatic end-times Christianity that defines the sect for the rest of the world. I mean, his dad was buddies with Tim "Left Behind" Lahaye. The dude literally grew up believing that Nicolae Carpathia was going to put chips in everyone that didn't get raptured to heaven because he was zero degrees removed from that shit.

You and I can disagree with their interpretation of christianity, but I have zero doubts that their faith, and their understanding of their faith, is orders of magnitude stronger than yours or mine.

Yeah, I don't think we actually disagree about anything. Christianity, as you say, is a thing that was invented after Jesus (just as Buddhism is a thing that was invented after Buddha, Islam after Mohammed, Catholicism after Cathol, etc.). And it has taken multiple evolutionary pathways since (shortly after) Jesus's time, which is bound to happen. He may well be a sincere and faithful Christian, within a particular toxic species of Christianity. I just get shocked from time to time at how people can take a clear message of universal love and, over time, morph it into a self-serving club for assholes. Oh well. That's institutions for you, and we don't seem to be able to manege without them.

Just in case there's any perceived bad air around here, I speak for the American people (looks around America menacingly) when I say we realize that any actions taken by "Russia" do not necessarily represent the will of the Russian people. Most of us want to get along, but this Trump thing isn't how we do that.

I think the question people of the US (not just the US, but that's the one we're talking about) should ask themselves is: "What have I done that led to this, and what can I do to make it better?".

A country is a place run by its people, in this wonderful age of democracy. In a way, Trump's victory is a declaration of the rule of the people. We all make mistakes sometimes, and from what I observe, national politics as a model isn't much different from decisions of a single, often immature person. The fact that you guys strove for change is a great sight, even if it's a shame towards what the change has been so far.

None of you guys can lift the whole country on your shoulders, but if you gather up, you can achieve great change. With proper moral leadership, it can be a change for the better, which is what I'm hoping for dearly for your country. I love the way it is, and it makes me sad to see it fall apart so rapidly.

It's far from over, the US, but the damage to its image and structure piles up swiftly under Trump and Co.'s rule. The history will remember Trump for a while, I imagine, but it's what's going on now that matters. United States is very much capable of getting shit done - but only as long as people contribute to that greater cause.

I think the question people of the US (not just the US, but that's the one we're talking about) should ask themselves is: "What have I done that led to this, and what can I do to make it better?".

That's an easy one. Fuckall.

The current political state of affairs in the United States is directly attributable to revocation of the Fairness Doctrine, the steady dissolution of consumer protections by Republican representatives and senators and an explosion of white nationalism driven by the oh-shit-the-world-is-ending realization that the country was run successfully by a black man.

Government in the United States will always tip rurally because of the constitutional makeup of the electoral college and the Senate. Meanwhile, everywhere rural has been abandoned by anyone with means. Therefore, those without means (and often education, worldly experience and compassion for the unknown) have an inherent advantage over those in cities. Combine that with a stratification of media brought on by the annihilation of the Fairness Doctrine and here we are.

I'm guessing you wouldn't disregard the massive improvement in lives of blacks around the US over the last... what, sixty years? It didn't just happen: people fought for it, as they continue nowadays. You saying "People can't do shit about it" sounds like a cop-out where people ought to take reigns for their own welfare's sake.

You're not talking about civil rights, you're talking about co-opting of the electoral process by a hostile foreign power and we're not going to kum-bay-ya our way out of that.

What people can do is express their anger and spend their money on organizations with more power than they have. I'm now $40 a month into the ACLU, Mother Jones, PBS and 350.org and am a member of my local democratic caucus. But we're not the problem. So what can I do about toothless racists in Alabama? Fuckall.And wait for them to die.

Last I checked, your country was being run by a strongman who murders his opponents. What have you done that led to that and what can you do to make that better?

What people can do is express their anger and spend their money on organizations with more power than they have.

This is what I'm talking about. Not sitting idly around the bonfire, but at least helping those who do their best to quench it.

Or did you think I'm not for practical measures? It's just that it's not all there is to it. There's mindset people follow that has led to this nonsense. Not directly, but allowed it, and in allowance, narcissistic strongmen thrive. One thing led to another, and soon enough, there's a whole road to hell paved neatly before you. Cause and effect isn't just before you: it's a massive chain of consequences.

I'm not claiming to know it all, but something happened that led to where we are, whether it's a senile narcissistic idiot or a former intelligence agent who shot his way to the top. To figure out what that something is to find a way to unfuck whatever mess there is.

EDIT: Not to pussy out of my own argument, I'm gonna tell you what I think about myself in this respect.

What I did was to keep quiet and not rock the boat. People like their boats steady 'round here, and hell, so do I. I keep glancing over the small things that happen around me because "that's just the way it is".

What I can do is educate people about what's going on, why it's bad and how they can do better. I'm not a fighter, and I'm not an orator. Neither am I a lawyer or a public person to advocate in front of the crowd. My place is in front of a group of people, opening their eyes to the reality of things that I keep so much time meticulously studying. It isn't as down-to-earth as practical folks like you would like, but theory is no less important than practice, whatever the trade.

I think that you're never going to come across as anything but hectoring when you start with "what have you done." You're still assuming there's some causality between the personal actions of liberals and a reality TV billionaire with the nuclear codes and sorry, that's fucking offensive.

I will freely claim to know more than you and the reason your statement raises my hackles is that if you don't think every Clinton voter in the country hasn't done a shit-ton of soul-searching in the wake of this catastrophe you're either high or oblivious. But the fact of the matter is this: none of us expected a bullshit coalition of FSB, internet trolls, rednecks and fucking Facebook to negate a 3-million-vote majority and if you somehow think that we could have done something about it?

FUCK YOU.

I canvassed for Kerry. I volunteered for my congressman and he's my governor now. I got out the vote and I gave money and the fucker caved before everything was counted. I give money to the ACLU and have done for a decade; my political contributions are in the thousands of dollars. Yet here we are, wondering how the hell it happened, and take it from me - you didn't want it badly enough is not a helpful sentiment.

I don't blame apathy for this one. I don't blame disinterest. I blame a steady erosion of the protection of fundamental democratic principles that are utterly beyond the reach of the average voter. And I'm damn proud of the resistance and vocal opposition this country is expressing - the Muslim ban? Those are my peeps. An attorney general I put in office acting on orders of the governor I volunteered for back when he was a congressman stopped the Trump administration in its tracks. But here we are - opposing the federal government.

The way to think about this is not "we could have done more" but "what can we do now" because enough fucking redneck morons showed up to force us all to deal with this shit and you know what? Short of carpetbagging our way to Alabama and spending millions we don't have, we're doing what we can.

Claire Wolfe had a quote a dozen years back - "America is at that awkward stage where it's too late to work within the system but it's too early to shoot the bastards." I thought she was alarmist then, especially as we ended up with eight years of Obama... but the fact remains that there are crucial aspects of the system that are not functional and that can't simply be wished away.

Nor can its failures be pinned on those who know the system is broken.

I get sick of all the insinuations that the people who ardently didn't vote for Trump are somehow responsible for Trump.

I get that. You're now somehow responsible for shit you didn't even breathe towards as it was happening. Being blamed for something you didn't remotely caused.

I didn't try to say that you did, either. What I was trying to say was rather more abstract, and I didn't mean to insist that it's all your fault - or, for that manner, anybody in particular's. You can probably name a few far more responsible than others, though.

What I was aiming at - and what I should have put that as - was the concept of personal responsibility. "Everything that happens in my life is because of me". I believe in that, even if it's difficult to enforce and see at times.

I'm guessing you have a lot of shit on your plate already due to high standards, so me seemingly giving you more is an overkill.